AIM Scholars Program– Accomplish-Innovate-Motivate

The project, AIM Scholars – Accomplish-Innovate-Motivate, will contribute to meeting the national need for well-educated scientists, engineers, and technicians in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) at Bismarck State College. Bismarck State College in North Dakota will award scholarships to 138 unique scholars/250 scholarships to academically talented students with demonstrated financial need, who are pursuing associate and baccalaureate degrees in Applied Science.

Both full-time and part-time students are eligible to apply for scholarships. In addition, the project will foster an ecosystem of academic activities and co-curricular student supports that scaffold student success. The project builds on a prior successful S-STEM award and the research literature by leveraging existing student-centered institutional infrastructure and developing and implementing additional activities and supports based on lessons learned.

The overall purpose of the project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Specifically, the project’s goals are to (1) recruit, enroll, and award scholarships to low-income, talented students into STEM programs; (2) provide student support services to increase retention and graduation rate of AIM Scholars to degree achievement; and (3) build relationships with industry to enhance experiential learning and internship opportunities for AIM Scholars.

Activities include pre-enrollment assessment; advising, counseling, and career development; individualized action plans; faculty and peer mentoring; internships; a one-credit student success course; and training and professional development for faculty and peer mentors. These activities will create a system of curricular and co-curricular supports for students in applied science fields, a majority of which are focused on STEM-oriented technician areas.

Academic and career pathways will be facilitated by established articulation agreements between Bismarck and other four-year programs at colleges and universities in North Dakota. Importantly, the knowledge generating component of the effort will investigate the relationship between project components and expected outcomes, such as student outcomes (e.g., retention and graduation, time to completion, and grade point average) and institutional outcomes (e.g., institutional commitment to continuing successful project activities).

This project is funded by NSF/s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.